One of my earliest memories is hiding my eyes, looking away and cowering behind a movie seat upon watching the appearance of the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz with my mother. Truth be told, the shock and horror has never left me. I looked away and my over stimulated youthful imagination nearly destroyed me. The same thing happene …
I’ve come to the realization that there are three stages of life: Youth, Middle Age and “You Look Good!” I can’t resist that line when someone tells me I look good. Actually, in my case, the third stage is what I call my Afterlife. No matter how long I live I will never retire. Rather, I will revel in this stage as a sort of enjoyable, no hold …
I saw The Killer rip it up atop his piano in 1957 to close the show at Alan Freed’s Brooklyn Paramount after Screaming Jay Hawkins rose from his coffin to put an eternal spell on me. That same year I saw Althea Gibson make everlasting history by winning the Women’s Tennis Singles Final at the old Forest Hills. I was alone with my idol Elvis at a …
As blogged last week, Saturday was my birthday and it was a very very nice day. Thank you all for your happy birthday wishes through blog comments, emails, texts, cards, phone calls and Facebook messages! Presents came too. Examples are cool Roy Orbison/Sun records and Batman tees plus significant numeral art work from Jo, a chilled bottle of m …
Tomorrow is my birthday and that means I’ve experienced over 28,000 days on this earth. That’s a lot of days and and experiences and I’m fortunate to say that most of them have been good ones. I’m an early riser and welcome every day and its challenges with vigor. On this first day of the rest of my life I can look forward to how many more da …
When I was young I was one lazy slacker, warranting the nickname “Klein with the big behind”. At some point in high school self loathing caused a light to go off and I started to play sports, do push ups and other exercises which I continue to do daily to this day. Then came the running boom and I was hooked, running distance every day for almo …
In Key West there is a practice called the “Local Discount” of 10% for “Locals”. We somehow qualify and appreciate it. Usually we are noticed as “Locals” and automatically receive it. When we are not, I sometimes request it. A discount is certain amount or percentage deducted from the usual or posted price (a whole blog could be written on wh …
In the sports world, being benched is not a good thing as you are taken off the playing field and assigned to “riding the pine” and hopefully motivated to think “Put me in Coach I’m ready to play!” However, in real life, a lot can go on while one is sitting on a bench (even, I suppose, in sports). As pictured, the center of Key West society sits …
The title is intentionally deceiving to draw your attention. I am not asking your IQ number. I am asking which type or types of intelligence quotient best fits you. As pictured, there are actually 9 types of IQ and personally I’d like to think I’m in the running for 8. No way, musical! No doubt, interpersonal! How’s about you?
When I was young, except for sports stories and related trivia, I was pretty empty headed. And maybe that was a good thing, as there may now be less useless information clogging my cranial band width. Passing on how I got from there and then to here and now (maybe a story for another time), it is indisputable that I presently suffer from an unq …
As the photo evinces, recently I was blocked by Facebook. What did I do? I posted some iconic photos of the great Josephine Baker on one of Judy Mauer’s inspirational Facebook posts. The problem, according to Facebook, is that her breasts were barely bare in one of the photos. To be honest, I didn’t even notice, but they sure did and I had to …
No wonder Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is our richest billionaire (pre divorce)! One of my quirks is that I save credit card chits and check them against my monthly credit card bills. We have a Master Card and an American Express card. While going through this ritual I noticed that each account had a charge for Amazon Prime. I eventually got around t …
Recently I was going down a one-way street in the wrong direction and a passing driver called me out for it. Without thinking I heard myself say “but I’m left-handed“ and the driver laughed. As you know I am left-handed and think on the right side of my brain. Whether or not being left handed is the reason for it, as you may know, I do not stifl …
A 100 years from now very few of us today will still be functioning. Yet, (hopefully) the World as we know it will continue to thrive, turn and ripen. Just as 100 years ago few of us were alive. Yet 1919 society, as it was, thrived and resonates still today. A great example is the epic Babe Ruth trade that year from the Boston Red Sox to my Ya …
Last week we had the unfortunate need to visit an Urgent Care Facility in Middle America and it was both eye opening and heart breaking. As we sat, not so patiently, waiting our turn to be seen we observed poor, wretched, desperate people without healthcare insurance stream in hoping for a haven. We had heard, but not seen. It was sad. It was …
Fridays With Fred
A perfect way to send you into your weekend